Smartphones have sensors for collecting information of a user, including the surroundings of the user, e.g., microphones for recording voice, cameras for recording images, and an inertial measurement unit (IMU) for measuring location and position of the user. Smartphones also have radios for local or remote communications, such as a cellular radio for communicating with a base station, a Global Positioning System (GPS) radio for communicating with a satellite, a near field communication (NFC) radio, a WiFi radio, and/or a Bluetooth radio for pairing with another device nearby. These sensors and radios are capable of providing a wealth of user information to third parties. Using such information, one may piece together real-time and/or historical records of the user.
Currently, most smartphones do not alert users when user private data are collected and/or disseminated. Consequently, when third-parties (e.g., hackers) gain unwanted access to a smartphone (e.g., hijack), a user may not be aware of the privacy invasion. Moreover, when the smart devices are in danger of being hijacked, conventional systems and devices do not provide methods of efficient distress mode activation, and thus cannot effectively protect the smart devices.
In accordance with common practice the various features illustrated in the drawings cannot be drawn to scale. Accordingly, the dimensions of the various features can be arbitrarily expanded or reduced for clarity. In addition, some of the drawings cannot depict all of the components of a given system, method or device. Finally, like reference numerals can be used to denote like features throughout the specification and figures.